The Bat by Jo Nesbo

Finally published in English, the first Harry Hole novel explains a lot about the series hero

I
t did not take long for Jo Nesbo’s embittered Norwegian detective, Harry
Hole, to become one of the best-known characters in contemporary crime
fiction. Nesbo’s breakthrough novel, The Snowman (the seventh book in the
series, which has been published out of chronological order in this
country), was released in English only two years ago, introducing Hole to an
international audience for the first time. Although it showed him almost
losing the woman he loved to a serial killer, his dark side was evident
before that gut-wrenching episode. What has never been entirely clear is why
Hole has such an angry, depressive streak. The answer turns out to lie in
this, the first novel in the series.

The Bat appeared in Norway in 1997, and it’s a fascinating book, filling in
the gaps in Hole’s biography and telling the story of the murder case in
­Australia that cemented his reputation as